Chapter 4: The Miskatonic Exhibit Museum

[HoneyDog]

OOC,It's not necessarily a problem to run into Grewe; it depends on the decisions you make regarding the bracelet.

[Starspawn338]

"I'm sure you don't need me to talk to Mr. Bricknell." Harrison says to Alice. "We won't do anything but look."

With that, Harrison heads off to the Contemporary Cultures Hall.

[HoneyDog]

OOC,Is the party going to split up at this point?

[Mr. Handy]

OOC,I guess we could do that. Does anybody else, preferably someone who's also persuasive, want to come with me to back me up when I talk to [b]Dr. Bricknell[/b]?

[innsmouth]

Henry Glynn

"I'll go with Alice"

[HoneyDog]

Isadora and Harrison continue on their way to view the bracelet, while Alice and Henry leave for Dr. Bricknell's office.

OOC,I'll start a separate thread for Alice and Henry. Isadora, roll Luck.

[evil_scientist]

Isadora Carmichael
Luck 65
[dice]0[/dice]

[HoneyDog]

Isadora and Harrison reach the Contemporary Cultures Hall without seeing anyone. Their assumption was correct – they soon locate a cabinet of New England folk art containing the jewelry from Innsmouth.

They are of a strange metal in a pale gold colour. There is a tiara, an ornate necklace, and three bracelets. All are engraved in swirling designs and carvings of what seems to be dolphins and shells. The tiara has several figures in bas-relief; they look humanoid but have an odd batrachian or ichthyoid look.

[evil_scientist]

Isadora Carmichael

"They are beautiful..." Isadora whispers, and steps closer to the cabinet. She examines the intricate details and weird shapes. Is it anything she might have seen before? She thinks back to the dozens of catalogs of folk art and ornaments she has in her home library, the thousands of pictures she has seen on exhibitions.

OOC,I'm adding a roll for uh anything that might come up: [dice]0[/dice]

[HoneyDog]

Isadora,I’ll count that as a successful Idea roll. It occurs to Isadora that the bracelets seem to be too large to fit comfortably on the average human wrist.

[evil_scientist]

Isadora Carmichael

When the mild Stendhal syndrome attack wears off, Isadora points this out to Harrison.

"Look how big those bracelets are! Clearly not meant for Asenath's elfin wrists... Why does she need them, then? Some personal or sentimental connection? I know I've asked you before, but perhaps you can remember where she is from, originally?"

[Starspawn338]

Harrison shrugs. "I'm afraid I know very little about her myself. I know who she is but as you can see, she's pretty reserved and no one who is in her circle is very talkative either."

OOC,Occult Roll 30 (on the off chance I've seen something like this before? [dice]0[/dice]

He bends in to get a closer look at the designs on the bracelets.

"I'm more interested in those designs. Does it look like there is any pattern to them? Harrison continues, "And those figures in the tiara... Have you ever seen anything like that."

[HoneyDog]

OOC,The others will be rejoining you soon – I might play a little fast and loose with game time, so we’ll have to imagine you’ve been poring over the exhibit for 30 minutes or so. We'll have a little conversation and then Alice and Henry will turn up.

Our heroes are interrupted by a bespectacled man in his late forties, wearing a bow tie and a rumpled tweed suit. He is hurrying towards them, a look of concern on his kindly face.

“My my!” he exclaims. “This exhibit is suddenly very popular!”

He takes off his glasses as he regards Harrison.

“You’re Harrison Matthews, aren’t you?” he asks. Turning to Isadora, he says “I’m sorry, we haven’t met – I’m George Grewe, the Curator. And the exhibit you’re regarding so intensely seems to be the subject of quite a bit of intrigue!”

He looks concerned and fascinated at the same time. “Is this a coincidence?” he asks, regarding the investigators with keen, intelligent eyes.

[evil_scientist]

Isadora Carmichael

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Grewe. I'm Isadora Carmichael, from Boston," she introduces herself to the curator.

She assumes that Alice and Henry's request reached Grewe. However, she doesn't know the result yet... so she plays it safe.

"This is not a coincidence. I'm sure you've been told about the circumstances. But what do you think, as the person who knows the most about these artifacts: what makes them special?"

[Starspawn338]

Harrison acknowledges George Grewe with a slight bow. "I am. I had heard that there was some interest in this exhibit and I thought I would come here with my friend to see if we could puzzle out just what is so interesting about these pieces."

[Mr. Handy]

At this point Alice and Henry arrive.

[HoneyDog]

“Ah, Miss Stanton and her friend!” exclaims Grewe. “I’m guessing you’re all acquainted with each other, then?” He winks at Isadora.

Suddenly serious, he says “Look, I’m really not very happy about this arrangement. But I agreed to go along with it. We’ve spent a long time building up the collection here, and I don’t want to start giving it away to satisfy some fanciful whimsy. So you’d better take care of it!” He sighs and wipes his face with a handkerchief.

“In answer to your questions, I guess that the special thing about them is the metal. We haven’t been able to identify it – it resembles gold but it’s something else. It comes from Innsmouth, indeed it was given to us by an anonymous donor who found it there. This is before my appointment as curator; I believe it was sometime before the Great War. My suspicions are that the pieces originate in the South Pacific, and were returned to Innsmouth by a merchant or a whaler. The style is quite unusual, but apart from that and the strange metal there doesn’t seem to be anything else.”

He takes a key from his pocket and unlocks the case. Selecting a bracelet, he produces a cloth and wraps it, and hands it to Alice.

“Please see that it is returned” he says, solemnly.

[Mr. Handy]

"Thank you, Mr. Grewe," says Alice, accepting the wrapped bracelet and handling it with care. "We shall."

[HoneyDog]

OOC,You guys can talk to Grewe more, do something else or I can move the action forward to your visit to Asenath in the evening.

[evil_scientist]

Isadora Carmichael

"Thank you, Mr. Grewe," Isadora says.

OOC,Let's move on!